
Class_3ya3^ 



Book 



Copyright N" 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 

OUR FATHER 

ANALYZED ACCORDING TO THE DOCTRINE OF 

^ ST. THOMAS AQUINAS 



BY 

Eey. J. G. HAGEN, S.J. 



TRANISLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY A VISITATION 
NUN, GEORGETOWN, D. C. 



** lam the vine, you the branches.''^— St. John xv. 5. 

I 

NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO : 

BBN^^IOER BROTHERS, 

-. Jointers to the Holy Apostolic See. 

1903. 



J 



f 



fltbil ©b0tat- 



THE L:LRARY OF | 
CONbRfcSS, 

Two Copies Received 

tUY 1 1903 

Copyright tntry 

cuss <L^ XXc, No 

COPY B. 






REMY LAFORT, 

Censor Librorum, 



Imprimatur 



t JOHN M. FARLEY, 

Archbishop of New York, 



New York, March 30, 1903. 



Off Oi«rr,Kusss 

WASHINGTON 



Copyright, 1903, by Benziger Brothers. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Thb Addbess • 6 



PART I, 

I. The End: Hallowed be Thy Name, etc.. 9 

II. The Way : Thy will be done, etc 14 

III. The Temporal Means: Give us this day, 

ETC 18 

PART II. 

I. The Diversion from the End: Forgive 

us, ETC 22 

II. The Dangers on the Way: Lead us not, 

ETC 24 

III. Temporal Hindrances: But deliver us, 

ETC 27 

The Conclusion 30 

3 



THE OUR FATHER 

According to the Doctrine of St, Thomas Aquinas.^ 

The Our Father is a vocal prayer, and espe- 
cially a prayer of petition. However, this does 
not exclude its being a mental prayer; on the 
contrary, like the decalogue and the creed, — 
which are likewise compendiums for the use 
of the faithful — it should be the subject of 
frequent and earnest meditation. Would it 
not be a matter of deep sorrow if this prayer, 
composed by Our Ijord Himself, translated into 
every language, repeated by all classes and 
races under heaven, uttered from the begin- 
ning to the end of Christian times, and continu- 
ally recited in the divine office — if this sublime 
prayer should be a prayer of the lips only? 

To minimize this danger many valuable 
explanations have been written by the Fathers 
of the Church, SS. Cyprian and Augustine; 

* The text of the Our Father is taken from the 
Gospel of St. Matthew, vi. 9, 13; the explanation of 
the subject by St. Thomas has been drawn from his 
II Ilae, q. 83, a. 9, and Opusc. V. 

5 



6 Analysis of the Our Father. 

by the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, whose 
analysis is followed here in substance; and 
by such renowned theologians as Salmeron 
and Suarez; moreover, a detailed explanation 
may be found in the catechism of the Council 
of Trent. A rich collection of thoughts from 
these and various other sources has been made 
by Father Knabenbauer, S.J., in his Commen- 
tary on St. Matthew's Gospel.* 

The following is not a theological disqui- 
sition, nor yet a reproduction of the copious 
hterature written on the Our Father; it is 
rather an analysis or index, that is, a synoptical 
view of the sublime truths embodied in this 
prayer, so as to enable us to recite it intelli- 
gently, and in the vicissitudes of hfe always 
to find the appropriate petition.! 

THE ADDRESS. 

Our Father who art in heaven. 

A direct reference to name and place is 
customary, not only in our written intercourse, 
but also in opening an address, especially on 
solemn occasions and to persons of rank. Nor 
should we neglect this point in our colloquies 

* Pages 254-271. 

t This explanation of the Our Father is conformed 
to the second method of prayer according to the Exer- 
cises of St Ignatius. 



■ 



The Address. 7 

with the Most High, lest, in the words of Wis- 
dom, we '^ tempt God." 

We call God Father, because we have not 
received the spirit of bondage in fear, but the 
spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: 
^'Abba, Father."* However, God is not an 
earthly but a heavenly Father. What this 
signifies Our Saviour Himself deigns to explain: 
^'If you then being evil, know how to give 
good gifts to your children, how" much more 
will your Father from heaven give the good 
Spirit to them that ask Him?V' f Moreover, 
by this address we are reminded that our 
home is above where Our Father dwells; con- 
sequently any petition which would constitute 
this earth our permanent abode is by this very 
fact excluded from the Our Father. 

The word our in this address merits our special 
attention, since it imprints on the whole prayer 
the seal of Catholicity. It teaches us that the 
petitions following are not for ourselves only, 
but for all the children of Our common Father. 

As a rule seven petitions are distinguished 
in the Our Father, determined by the seven 
grammatical propositions in which it is ex- 
pressed. According to their meaning how- 
ever, these petitions may be grouped into six, 
the first three being positive, the remaining 

* Rom. viii. 15. f St. Luke xi. 13. 



8 Analysis of the Our Father. 

three negative. St. Thomas arranges them 
under two heads, those of good and evil; the 
petitions under the first head corresponding 
with those similarly numbered under the second 
head: 

Part I. 

I. The End: Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy 
Kingdom come. 
II. The Way to the End: Thy ivill be done 
on earth as it is in heaven, 
III. The temporal Means: Give us this day 
our daily bread. 

Part II. 

I. The Diversion from the End: Forgive 21s 
our trespasses as we forgive them who 
trespass against us. 
11. The Dangers on the Way: Lead us not 
into temptation. 
III. Temporal Hindrances: Bvi deliver us 
from evil. 



PART FIRST. 

THE FAVORS FOR WHICH WE PETITION. 

I. The End: Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy 
Kingdom come. 

This double petition expresses the End for 
which we were created, or, in other words, our 
destiny J from which we were diverted in the 
Fall, and to which we have been restored by 
the Redemption. The Catechism teaches us 
on its opening page: ^' We were created to 
glorify God, and thereby to attain eternal 
happiness." And the heavenly choirs announced 
the birth of the Saviour with the words: ''Glory 
to God in the highest, and on earth peace to 
men of good will." * 

It is of the utmost importance that we 
recognize in this double petition but one and 
the same end viewed from two different stand- 
points. Viewed from the divine standpoint, 
this end is the sanctification of God's Name; 
viewed from our standpoint, it is the establish- 
ment of God's kingdom. In reality the name 

* St. Luke ii. 14. 
9 



10 Analysis of the Our Father. 

of God is sanctified by the growth and com- 
pletion of His kingdom, while we ourselves by 
sanctifying the name of God enter into this 
kingdom. 

This identity of the sanctification of God's 
Name and the completion of the kingdom of 
God is beautifully expressed by the Church in 
the Gloria of the Mass, when, to the song of 
the angels, she adds the words: '' Gratias 
agimus Tihi propter magnam gloriam Tuam,'' 
'^We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory." 
We thank God for the revelation of His glory, 
which is to be our eternal beatitude. In sub- 
stance, therefore, these two expressions con- 
stitute but one petition, the dual form in which 
it is presented serving to emphasize its im- 
portance. 

• The separate words of this petition are 
fraught with significance. 

By the Name of God we are to understand 
God Himself, as far as He has revealed Himself 
to us; just as the name of a person suggests 
the personality of him named. Sanctification 
of name belongs to God exclusively and is nec- 
essarily due to Him. The name of a creature 
may be renowned and honored; the name of 
the Creator alone deserves sanctification. This 
sanctification must be claimed by the Creator; 
the proper order of things, consequently God's 
very essence, demands it. Hence we read in 



The Favor fi for ivhich we Petition. 11 

the Book of Proverbs: ''The Lord hath made 
all things for Himself."* For the same reason 
God says by the mouth of the prophet: '' I 
have formed him [man] for My glory. "f 

Now God finds this honor and sanetification 
of His Name in His kingdom; first, in the 
natural realm in which He has erected this 
kingdom. For 'Hhe heavens show forth the 
glory of God, and the firmament declareth 
the works of His hands."! ''Behold the birds 
of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they 
reap, nor gather into barns : and your heavenly 
Father feedeth them. . . . Consider the lilies 
of the field how they grow: they labor not, 
neither do they spin. But I say to you, that 
not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed 
as one of these." § But it is especially the 
children of God's household who should sanctify 
His name by participating in His kingdom — 
this kingdom foretold in paradise after the 
Fall, so long preparing in His chosen people, 
and finally established by His only-begotten 
Son; this kingdom guided by divine Wisdom 
and protected against the gates of hell until 
the second advent of His Son, when by the 
general Resurrection He will bring it to a glori- 
ous consummation. 

* Prov. xvi. 4. J Ps. xviii. 1. 

t Isaias xliii. 7. § St. Matt. vi. 27-29. 



12 Analysis of the Our Father. 

In this kingdom the name of God has been 
sanctified by the regulations and sacrifices of 
the Old Law, by the types and by the utter- 
ances of the prophets, by the canticles and 
sayings of the psalmists and sages, but 
principally by the fulfilment of the Old Law 
and the estabUshment of the New through 
Christ, His Son. God's name is sanctified in 
the Church militant, which is entrusted with 
the royal, the prophetical, and the sacerdotal 
power of its divine Head. Invested with 
legislative, judiciary, and executive powers, 
endowed with infallibihty and possessing a 
sacrifice and sacraments, the Church mihtant 
continues the work of Redemption, and con- 
sequently the sanctification of God's name, 
imtil the end of time. This name is further 
sanctified in the purifying processes of purga- 
tory, the realm of the Church suffering. But 
it is in the Church triumphant enjoying the 
Beatific Vision that this sanctification of the 
divine Name attains its fullest measure. 

Since the Founder of this kingdom is 
God's only-begotten Son, and since the indi- 
vidual subjects in this kingdom are united to 
its divine Founder as branches to the vine,* 
and as members to their head,t so that, in- 



* St. John XV. 5. 1 1. Cor. xii. 27; Col. ii. 19. 



The Favors for which we Petition. 13 

stead of a supernatural life of their own, they 
possess the divine life of Christ,* it follows 
that this hallowing of God/s name partakes 
of a divine character. 

This kingdom, so glorious, so sanctifying for 
the Name of God, so ineffably blissful for His 
children, is our end; it is for the propagation 
of this kingdom upon earth, for its purification 
in purgatory, and for its perfection in heaven 
that we pray in this first double petition of the 
Our Father, 

It is concerning this kingdom that Christ 
spoke to the people in parables, revealing its 
mysteries to His disciples after His resurrec- 
tion,! and disclosing it fully only after the 
descent of the Holy Ghost; it is in the spirit 
of this kingdom that the faithful should daily 
direct all their intentions and thus sanctify 
their ordinary actions. Finally, it is for this 
kingdom that so many noble souls have de- 
tached themselves from all the ties of flesh 
and blood in order to devote all their energy 
to its growth in themselves and others. These 
souls approach closer to their end, they petition 
in a fuller sense than do the other subjects of 
the heavenly kingdom; therefore he who re- 
gards them in a sinister or hostile manner 



H' Gal. ii. 20. t Acts i. 3. 



14 Analysis of the Our Father. 

opposes his human folly to the divine Wisdom 
of the Om* Father. 



II. The Way to the End: Thy will he done 
on earth as it is in heaven. 

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has estabUshed 
this heavenly Idngdom, and it is He alone 
who can lead us thither. For this purpose His 
Father has conferred upon Him a threefold 
power: kingly, prophetical, and priestly. 

He goes before us in the way as King, and 
Leader of the van, showing us by His example 
that the road to our destination is none other 
than the accomplishment of the divine Will. 
At the beginning of His earthly career He 
prays: ''Behold, O my God, I come to do 
Thy will," a prayer foretold by the Psalmist * 
and recalled by the Apostle. t Concerning 
His hidden Ufe the gospels reveal to us 
the simple isolated fact: He was submissive 
to His parents, the representatives of His 
heavenly Father. J His pubhc life is but the 
fulfilment of the mission entrusted to Him 
by His Father: ''I came down from heaven 
not to do My own will, but the will of Him that 



* Ps. xxxix. 8, 9. t Hebrews x. 7. 

% St. Luke ii. 5, 1. 



The Favors for which we Petition. 15 

sent Me." * This submission to the will of 
His Father was to Him as a bodily nourish- 
ment: '^I have meat to eat that you know 
not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that 
sent Me, that I may perfect His work." f 

His death is the crown of His submission. 
Our holy Mother the Church never wearies 
recalling to our minds the beautiful words of 
St. Paul: He became ^^ obedient unto death, 
even unto the death of the cross." % 

Such is the way opened up and trodden by 
our King. 

As Prophet Christ pointed out this same way 
when on occasions He explained the law, 
reprehended its transgression, or exhorted the 
people to its fulfilment; when He proclaimed 
those great who not only teach the com- 
mandments but keep them; § when He char- 
acterized the entry to the kingdom by saying: 
^^Not every one that saith to Me, I^ord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom, but he that 
doth the will of My Father who is in heaven, 
he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;" || 
finally, when He commissioned the apostles 
with the highest power to teach all nations,^ 
threatening the disobedient with eternal pun- 



* St. John vi. 38. § St. Matt. v. 19. 

t St. John iv. 3, 4. || St. Matt. vii. 21. 

JPhil. ii. 8. If St. Matt, xxviii. 18, 20. 



16 Analysis of the Our Father. 

ishment.* Faithful to their Master's com- 
mand, they taught that mere faith in the 
kingdom was useless and dead imless supported 
by good works.t If even the enemies of Christ 
were forced to acknowledge that He taught 
''the way of God in truth/' J His friends and 
followers cannot but see that the accomplish- 
ment of the divine Will is the true way which 
leads to God, our supreme destiny. 

It is not so evident at the first glance how 
This way is connected with Our Lord as High 
Priest. However, it was as our High Priest 
on Golgotha that Christ merited for us the 
grace to enter into His kingdom, that is, to be 
baptized in His death, and to be buried together 
with Him by Baptism into death in order to 
rise Avith Him into newness of life.§ Further, 
it is as our High Priest according to the order 
of Melchisedech, that He breaks to us the 
bread by which this supernatural Ufe is sus- 
tained in us. II Thus it becomes clear that he 
who enters Christ's kingdom does not Uve his 
own individual supernatural Ufe, but that 
Christ Hves in him.t In other words, Christ 
continues in us His own fife of submission to 
the will of His Father. 



* St. Mark xvi. 16. § Rom. vi. 3, 4. 

t St. James ii. 14, 26. |! St. John vi. 48, 59. 

t St. Matt. xxii. 16, ^ Gal. ii. 20. 



The Favors for which we Petition, 17 

The words he done, according to the AngeHc 
Doctor, imply that the accomplishment of God's 
will in us is not the w^ork of Christ alone nor 
of the human soul alone, but of both combined. 
For in His kingdom we are neither mere tools 
nor are we independent agents, but living 
branches of the Vine, living members of His 
mystical body. Christ is the Way, the Truth, 
and the Life, and no man cometh to the Father 
but by Him.* He does not go before us merely 
as our leader, but He Himself walks in us; 
He does not impart the truth to us as the other 
prophets did, but He is Himself the Truth; 
His sacrifices on Golgotha and Sion are not 
merely prefigurations of a new life, but sources 
whence new life — His own life — flows to us. 
In this manner the will of God is done in us 
through Christ. 

The words ^^on earth as it is in heaven^' will 
now appear in their true light. Christ, our 
Head, did not bring His divinely commissioned 
work to a close. He continues and will con- 
tinue to exercise His royal, prophetical, and 
sacerdotal power in the Church until His second 
coming in great power and majesty, f when 
He shall deliver up the kingdom to God and 
the Father. J 

* St. John xiv. 6. f St. Mark xiii. 32, 

1 1. Cor. xy. 24. 



18 Analysis of the Our Father, 

To aid in this work He employs the angels, 
as they likewise prepared His coming in the 
Old Law and served Him in the days of His 
mortal life. In the same glorious work He 
allows the members of the Church triumphant 
to share, as faith in the Communion of the 
Saints teaches us. The members of the Church 
militant should likewise associate themselves 
with Him in this work, and submit themselves 
perfectly to His guidance, to His doctrine, and 
to His hfe; then and only then shall the ivill 
of God be done on earth as it is in heaven, 

in. The temporal Means to the end: Give 
us this day our daily bread. 

To the Church mihtant, for whom the Our 
Father was especially composed, temporal 
goods are a necessary equipment. However, 
the secondary place assigned them in the order 
of the petitions for benefits accords perfectly 
with the teaching of Our Lord: ^'Seek ye 
therefore first the kingdom of God and His 
justice, and all these things shall be added 
unto you.'' * 

That the word bread is not to be understood 
exclusively in its literal sense may be inferred 
from the very nature of things, as well as 
from various texts of the Sacred Scriptures. 

* St. Matt. vi. 33. 



The Favors for which we Petition, 19 

Of Adam and his descendants it is said they 
shall ^^eat bread in the sweat of their brows/' * 
In the Scriptural passage alluded to above, 
^^Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His 
justice/' the Saviour spoke of the birds of the 
air and the lilies of the field which are fed and 
clothed by the loving providence of the Father, f 

In the same passage Our Lord explains why 
we should ask for our daily bread, and for 
this day only: J ^^Be not therefore solicitous 
for to-morrow; for the morrow will be solicitous 
for itself; sufficient for the day is the evil 
thereof." § 

Nor do we say : Give me this day my daily 
bread. Our prayer is a petition to our universal 
Father in heaven that He may provide nourish- 
ment and clothing for all His children. This is 
a necessary condition of Christian charity, the 
bond which unites all. 

This petition may be regarded as a compend 
of the numerous instructions in which Our 

* Gen. iii. 19. 

t St. Matt. vi. 26, 28. 

% St. Matt. vi. 34. 

§ In the light of this luminous doctrine of eternal 
Wisdom how are we to regard the assertions so fre- 
quently repeated that the Catholics of the present 
day have more confidence in God than is pleasing even 
to Him; that prayer is often a cloak for their sloth- 
fulness; that they are too inactive and yield all too 
readily to the will of God? 



20 Analysis of the Our Father. 

Lord illustrated the opposition existing between 
His kingdom and the pursuit of riches: ^'No 
man can serve two masters;'' ^'You cannot 
serve God and mammon;'' * ^'Blessed are the 
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven;" f ^^Woe to you that are rich: for 
you have 3^our consolation;" J ''Amen, I say 
to you that a rich man shall hardly enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." § St. Paul enlarges 
on this subject in an epistle to his disciple 
Timothy: "For the^ that will become rich fall 
into tempt lition, and into the snare of the 
devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful 
desires, which drown men into destruction and 
perdition." || 

This petition proves that those who, having 
left all things for God, are content with their 
daily bread, come nearer to God; therefore, 
that voluntary poverty will always be praise- 
worthy while the Church militant exists. It 
has been said that the Catholic Church is good 
for the poor and lower classes; this is in fact 
the testimony which proves it to be the true 
kingdom of God. Christ founded His Church 
in poverty; the evangelization of the world 
was entrusted to the apostles, all of whom 



* St. Matt. vi. 24. t St. Luke vi. 24. 

t St. Matt. V. 3. § St. Matt. xix. 23. 

II I. Tim. vi. 9. 



The Favors for which we Petition. 21 

were poor in the goods of this world. ''The 
poor have the Gospel preached to them'^ — such 
is the testimony given by Christ Himself to 
the disciples of the Baptist as a proof of His 
divine mission^ a proof which He cites as equally 
evidential with His miracles: ''The blind see, 
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf 
hear, and the dead rise again, the poor have 
the Gospel preached to them/' * 

Thus in these first three petitions of the Our 
Father are enumerated the favors for the 
attainment of which we earnestly petition: 
first, the Endj the sanctification of God's name, 
and His kingdom; secondly, the Way to this 
end, that is, the accomplishing of God's will; 
finally, the temporal Means, our daily bread. 

To each of the benefits just considered is 
opposed an evil, from which in the second part 
of the Our Father we petition to be delivered. 

*St. Matt. xi. 5. 



PART SECOND. 

THE EVILS FROM WHICH WE PETITION TO BE 
DELIVERED. 

I. The Diversion from the End: Forgive 
us our trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass 
against us. 

Sin diverts us from our end, that is, it opposes 
the sanctification of God's Name and robs us 
of eternal happiness. The sin of the rebel 
angels, as well as the sin of our first parents, 
dishonored God; the same is true of the count- 
less sins of the human race. The necessary 
consequence of sin, quite abscinding from the 
positive punishment by means of which God re- 
pairs the divine honor, is the loss of the sonship 
of God and the privation of the Beatific Vision. 
For the fallen angels this loss is irreparable. 
The human race, on the other hand, received 
the grace of a second Head through whom 
not only original sin is cancelled, but the per- 
sonal iniquity of His members is cleansed and 
the end regained. This is the subject of the 
first petition of the second part. In uttering 
22 



Evils from which we Petition to be Delivered. 23 

it, who is not reminded of the beautiful para- 
ble of the prodigal son? * 

This, too, is a double petition; it is similar to 
the opening petition of the first part and 
stands in contrast with it. For the better under- 
standing of this petition it must likewise be 
considered from two points of view: on the 
part of God it signifies forgiveness, on the part 
of man contrition. In the kingdom of God for- 
giveness and contrition are as essentially united 
as the glory of God with our beatitude. But 
how is it that this contrition is worded thus: 
^^ As we forgive them who trespass against us^^ ? 
For the reason that we are to strive for our 
end, not as individuals, but as children of our 
common Father. 

This is clearly expressed in the opening 
address: Our Father who art in heaven. It is 
through the forgiveness of our sins that we are 
reinstated in the family of our heavenly Father; 
yet this requires on our part that we treat those 
who trespass against us as children of God 
and as our brothers and sisters in the heavenly 
family. Our Lord illustrates this connection 
between the heavenly Father and His children 
by His parable of the unprofitable servant,t 
and by His placing on equal footing the two 



* St. Luke XV. 11-32. f St. Matt, xviii. 23, 35. 



24 Analysis of the Our Father, 

commandments of the love of God and the 
love of om^ neighbor.* 

Finally, the little word us has its lesson. 
We are not taught to say, ^^ forgive vie my 
sins/' since Our Lord commands us to pray 
not for ourselves only, but for the conversion 
of all sinners, for the repentance and pardon 
of the whole world. 

II. The Dangers on the Way: Lead us not 
into temptation. 

As sin is opposed to our end, so is the danger 
of going astray opposed to the right way; in 
other words, temptation opposes the fulfilment 
of the divine Will. 

For a clearer apprehension of this petition 
of the Our Father, as well as of various other 
passages of the Holy Scripture, we must dis- 
tinguish between temptation in itself, or ob- 
jective temptation, and its influence on the will, 
or subjective temptation.! 

The suggestions of the evil spirit and his 
agents, the bad example and scandals of the 
world, and the threefold concupiscence of 
nature — all these are objective temptations; 
subjective temptation, on the other hand, is 
the allurement by which objective temptation 

* St. Matt. xxii. 39, 40. 

t Cf. St. Thomas I q. 48, a. 5 ad 3. 



I 



Evils from which we Petition to he Delivered. 25 

solicits the will. The former is a proving or 
testing, the latter is a seduction to sin. It is 
clear from this distinction that the danger on 
the way to our end hes not in objective, but 
in subjective temptation. The first is willed 
or permitted by God, the second is strictly 
an evil. 

Thus we read in Scripture that God tempted 
Abraham by requiring the sacrifice of his son 
Isaac ; * that He placed Job^s possessions, 
health and wealth in the power of Satan ;t 
that it was necessary that Tobias should be 
subjected to temptation because he was accept- 
able to God; J that the souls of the just are 
tempted by God and proved as gold in the 
furnace;! that all who enter the service of 
God must prepare their souls for tempta- 
tion. || In these and similar passages we are 
to understand objective temptation. This is 
not the object of our petition. God has placed 
us in the midst of temptation that it may be 
clearly evident whether or not we love Him 
with our whole heart and with our whole soul.*[f 
We cannot escape objective temptation, except, 
as St. Paul says, '^by going out of this world. ^' 
St. James goes so far as to congratulate those 

* Gen. xxii. 1. § Wis. ill. 5. 

t Job ii. 6. II Eccles. ii. 1. 

JTob. xii. la *f Deut. xiii. 3. 



26 Analysis of the Our Father. 

who are thus exercised: '^Blessed is the man 
that endureth temptation: for when he hath 
been proved, he shall receive the crown of 
life/'* However, the same apostle adds: 
''Let no man, when he is tempted, say that 
he is tempted by God, for God is not a tempter 
of evils and He tempteth no man,'' — which 
clearly points to subjective temptation, the 
beguilement to sin which has its root in the 
weakness of man's will. It is this subjective 
temptation which is the object of our petition: 
^^Lead us not into temptation;^^ or, in other 
words: Lead us by the hand of Thy divine 
providence away from such circumstances which 
for our will-power, hmited as it is, may prove 
dangerous. Although Our Saviour, who was 
tempted in all things like ourselves, sin ex- 
cepted, f was not exposed to danger; although 
the apostles could without danger be ''sifted 
Uke wheat by Satan," X endued as they were 
with strength by the coming of the Holy Ghost; 
although the martyrs were endowed with such 
fortitude as to resist the most cruel tortures 
even unto death, nevertheless our natural will- 
power as well as our supernatural grace is 
as a rule so limited that under certain cir- 
cumstances we are at times exposed to the 



* St. James i. 12. f Heb. iv. 15. 

t St. Luke xxii. 31. 



Evils from which we Petition to be Delivered, 27 

subjective danger of sin. To the neglect of 
this petition of the Our Father must be ascribed 
the abandonment of the heathens to sensual 
pleasures,* the flight and fall of the apostles 
during the Passion of their I.ord and Master, 
and the yielding of so many Christians to the 
slightest temptation. 

Nor do we say in this petition, Lead me, 
but lead us not into temptation. It is again 
the idea of the great family of God, and the 
commandment of charity, that must induce us 
to pray for all those who are tempted through- 
out the Christian world. 

III. Temporal Hindrances: But deliver tzs 
from evil. 

As sin is opposed to our end, and tempta- 
tion to the way to this end, so is temporal mis- 
fortune, or evil J opposed to the temporal means 
requisite to attain the end. In this petition Our 
Lord teaches us to pray to be delivered from 
this evil, — a teaching which His faithful spouse 
the Church undeviatingly follows. Not a 
misfortime, not an adversity, on land or on 
water, at the hearth or in the field, in the 
family circle or in the affairs of state, but has 
a corresponding prayer or blessing in the 
liturgy of the Church, although these prayers 

* Rom. i. 26. 



28 Analysis of the Our Father. 

may not be so generally known as the invo- 
cations in the Litany of the Saints, as, for in- 
stance, the petition to be deUvered from a 
sudden and improvided death, from lightning 
and tempest, from famine, pest and war. 

^ This petition should be made with the same 
dispositions indispensable to the corresponding 
petition of the first part of the Our Father, 
that is, our petition for daily bread. That we 
seek first the kingdom of God, that we be not 
unduly sohcitous about our maintenance, are 
principles vrhich justly apply also to privations 
and misfortunes. The kingdom of God is 
eternal, adversity is merely temporal. St. 
Paul clothes this doctrine in the following 
words: ^^t remaineth . . . that they who 
weep be as though they weep not, and they 
that rejoice as if they rejoiced not, ... and 
they that use this world as if they used it not, 
for the figure of this world passeth away.'' * 

At times these temporal afflictions and mis- 
fortunes become necessary evils, as, for instance, 
when the divine Vintager judges it proper to 
purge the branches that they may bring forth 
more fruit.f But even in this case, following the 
example of Our Lord in the Garden of Olives, 
we may pray that the chalice of affliction, of 
evil, may pass from us; however, we must re- 



* I. Cor. vii. 29, 31. f St. John xv. 2. 



Evils from which we Petition to be Delivered. 29 

main like Him submissive to the will of the 
Father, and thus reap the fruit of adversity, 
that is, purification. 

As when praying for daily bread we include 
all mankind, so in this petition we do not say: 
Deliver me from evil, but in a truly Catholic 
spirit we pray that all parts of the world may 
be delivered from famine, pest, war, and every 
misfortune. How many evils have peoples 
and nations been spared because Christ heard 
this petition ascending from the lips of His 
spouse the Church; and how many more evils 
He would have mitigated had this suppUca- 
tion been made in seasonable time ! 

However, even in the midst of affliction this 
petition will be effective, moving God to allevi- 
ate suffering by adjusting our powers to its 
endurance that it may not surpass our strength, 
or by consoling us as He did His divine Son in 
Gethsemani. 



THE CONCLUSION. 

Amen, 

Our holy Mother the Church very appro- 
priately concludes the prayer of her divine 
Spouse with the word Amen.^ As the address 
is a proper introduction, so is the Amen a suit- 
able conclusion to the public prayers of the 
Church. In the Old Law the word Amen was 
frequently used as a responsory to the public 
prayers of the Levites, as, for instance, in the 
blessings and anathemas in Deuteronomy 
(xxvii. 11-26). Moreover, there are innumer- 
able instances when Our Saviour introduced 
His divine teaching by the confirmation: 
"Amen, Amen, I say unto you.'' The same 
word may be foimd in all the apostolic epistles, 
usually at the conclusion of a wish or prayer. 

* This word, though found in the Vulgate (St. 
Matt.vi. 13), was not, according to the general opinion 
of exegesists, added to the Our Father by Our Lord, 
but is an interpolation similar to the doxology com- 
mon in Protestant confessions: ''For Thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory," etc. 
30 



The Conclusion. 31 

It is proper, therefore, that the Church should 
continue this custom by adding to all her 
prayers, and in particular to the Our Father, 
the confirming word Amen. 

In conclusion we wish to draw attention 
to the fact that of this prayer may be said in 
the highest sense what Our Lord said of prayer 
in general: ^'Amen, Amen, I say unto you: 
if you ask the Father anything in My name, 
He will give it to you;'' * for the Our Father is 
not only uttered in the name of Our Lord, as 
are all the prayers of the Church, but is in 
form and substance His own composition, and 
for this reason most acceptable to His Father. 
Moreover, there is a very special relation 
between the Our Father and the promise 
referred to above. A prayer of petition is 
pleasing to God and worthy of being heard 
only when it comes within the limits of the 
Our Father,— such is the teaching of St. 
Augustine. Indeed, when we ask for the sancti- 
fication of the divine Name in heaven and on 
earth; when we pray for the increase and 
propagation of God's kingdom in Christian and 
heathen countries, and for its completion 
in the Church suffering; when we pray that all 
men may have strength to keep the command- 
ments, and that they may have daily bread; 

* St. John xvi. 23. 



32 Analysis of the Our Father. 

when we obtain the repentance and pardon of 
sinners, grace for the tempted; when we pray 
for relief of all the miseries of mankind, and 
for the averting of sickness, hunger, and the 
distress of war in all parts of the world, what 
more should we, or dare we, ask of God? 

According to St. Augustine this fact has a 
particular significance, since the Our Father 
should regulate not only our petitions, but also 
our desires. Therefore the man according to 
God's own heart will regulate his whole being 
by the Our Father, letting its petitions sink 
deep into his heart; and everything outside 
these petitions will be a matter of indifference 
to him. 

With the wealth of instruction contained iii 
these five verses of St. Matthew it seems truly 
deplorable that the faithful hear so little of 
it. Of what use to them is the ^^ Family Bible'' 
if its meaning is never disclosed? Of what use 
are the millions of Bibles distributed among the 
heathens, when these five verses, if explained 
in full, would reveal the whole of Christian 
life? St. Cyprian calls them a ^^ compendium 
of the heavenly revelations. " But for us 
who have received this explanation it is of 
the utmost importance that this prayer should 
permeate our daily lives, all our thoughts, 
desires, and actions. 

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